How to implement a smart AI-powered content strategy

The big picture: Forrester analysts have redefined how B2B marketers should approach content strategy, shifting from traditional content distribution to data-driven content intelligence that leverages AI for more personalized customer engagement.

Key concept defined: Content intelligence represents the systematic collection, correlation, and analysis of content-related data and consumption patterns to generate buyer insights, drive engagement, and measure performance metrics.

• This approach creates a data framework enabling marketers to utilize AI for detecting buying signals
• The framework facilitates value exchange through customized customer experiences
• It helps transform ineffective content production into a system of continuous customer experience improvement

Market trends and adoption: Two-thirds of B2B marketing decision-makers plan to increase their AI content creation technology investments, according to Forrester’s Marketing Survey 2024.

• Generative AI helps marketers leverage content as data by creating detailed metadata
• AI-powered content technologies can automatically tag content attributes
• These capabilities enable better detection and classification of buying signals from customer interactions

Expert perspectives: Industry leaders emphasize the transformative potential of content intelligence for marketing effectiveness.

• Oracle’s VP of Global Marketing Technology, Bence Gazdag, suggests future marketing will rely on reading actual customer journeys through data
• Knotch’s Chief Customer Officer Andrew Bolton highlights that content intelligence reveals the reasoning behind metrics and guides strategic action

Implementation guidance: Organizations are advised to establish fundamental content intelligence infrastructure.

• Evaluate existing technology stack for content intelligence capabilities
• Assess digital engagement systems and revenue marketing platforms
• Review conversation automation systems
• Develop a technology roadmap that incorporates generative AI capabilities

Technology integration perspective: The transition to content intelligence requires careful consideration of how various marketing technologies work together to create a cohesive system that can effectively capture and utilize customer interaction data while maintaining personalization capabilities.

• Content intelligence tools must integrate with existing marketing automation platforms
• Systems should be capable of auto-tagging and metadata generation
• Technologies need to support real-time analysis and activation of content based on customer signals

Looking ahead: As AI technology continues to mature, content intelligence is positioned to become increasingly sophisticated in its ability to predict and respond to customer needs, though organizations must carefully plan their technology investments and implementation strategies to realize its full potential.